At the direction of Governor Sean Parnell, the State of Alaska
announced last week that it has joined the legal battle to prohibit
state and local governments from denying individual Americans
their right to bear arms, which is provided under the Second
Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Attorney General Dan Sullivan,
along with his counterparts in three dozen other states, recently
signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief in the case of McDonald
v. City of Chicago, now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Alaska had previously joined other states in successfully petitioning
the court to hear the case, in which Chicago firearm owners challenge
a handgun ban in the city.

Last year, in District of Columbia
v. Heller, the high court overturned a similar handgun ban in
the nation's capital, which is a federal enclave. That ruling
did not resolve whether such a ban would be permissible when
imposed by city governments or state legislatures.

"The right to bear arms
is so fundamental because implicitly it is the means through
which all of our other rights are secured," Governor Parnell
said. "Whether in rural Alaska or inner-city Chicago, this
is a right Americans must have, regardless of where they live
or where they travel."

"We expect the gun owners
to prevail in the case," said Attorney General Sullivan.
"The Supreme Court consistently has found that the individual
rights in the Bill of Rights must be recognized by state and
local governments, thanks to the 'due process' clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment. As Alaskans, whose way of life is dependent
to such a large degree on the right to bear arms, it's important
that we stand up for this principle."